1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to medical treatment and, in particular, to devices, systems, and methods for delivering and deploying endoluminal medical devices.
2. Description of Related Art
The deployment of a medical device, such as an endoluminal prosthesis, into the vessel of a patient from a remote location by the use of a catheter delivery device is generally known. A catheter delivery device carrying an endoluminal prosthesis is delivered into a vessel over a guide wire previously placed within the vessel. Once the catheter device is positioned, the prosthesis is released and expanded to repair the vessel.
An endoluminal prosthesis can be used, for example, to repair diseased and/or damaged conduits, such as blood vessels, the esophagus, the trachea, and the like. Over the past decade, endoluminal prostheses have become a popular option for treating damage and disease to blood vessels, such as abdominal aortic and/or thoracic aneurysms.
In some cases, it may be necessary to deploy an endoluminal prosthesis in a major vessel (e.g., the aorta) at or near an intersecting branch vessel (e.g., innominate, carotid, subclavian, celiac, SMA, and renal arteries). In these cases, an endoluminal prosthesis may be provided with one or more fenestrations so that the prosthesis can overlap the branch vessels without blocking flow to these vessels. Once the prosthesis is placed in the main vessel, it may be necessary to provide interventional access between the main vessel and a branch vessel. For example, a physician may desire to deliver additional interventional catheters carrying balloons, stents, grafts, imaging devices, and the like through the fenestration.
Before such a catheter device can be delivered through the fenestration to a target vessel, however, a guide wire must be provided and delivered through the fenestration to the target vessel. Typically, this requires multiple steps. First, the physician must deliver and navigate a set of catheters and wires to pass a guide wire through the fenestration. Once the fenestration is cannulated, the physician must then deliver and navigate a separate set of catheters and wires to pass a guide wire into the target vessel. These procedures are labor intensive, involve manipulating multiple wires in a vessel at the same time, and depend heavily on the skill of the physician to cannulate both the fenestration and the target vessel. The steps become even more complicated and numerous when the physician needs to cannulate more than one fenestration and more than one target vessel. In addition, the complexity of the procedure increases as the number of cannulating wires increases, since the physician must take precaution to ensure that the multiple wire ends do not become entangled, or that they do not inadvertently contact and damage the prosthesis or a vessel wall.
The present invention is directed to devices and systems that overcome these, and other issues involved with cannulating fenestrated devices. In particular, the present invention is directed to devices, systems, and methods for delivering and deploying a prosthesis comprising a fenestration, where such devices, systems, and methods include a precannulated fenestration. The precannulated fenestration reduces the potential number of steps and devices, and decreases the complexity of performing endoluminal procedures involving fenestrated prosthetic devices.